$2500 In About 25 Minutes: Word of Mouth Pays

If you have been around me for even a few minutes in the past month since I finally joined the growing Droid army with my HTC Incredible, you know that I am a little obsessed. I haven’t really given it much rest since and my mouth hasn’t stop running on about it either. Lucky for Verizon.

Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising out there. (Consumers trust other consumers) A couple of my friends had their upgrade coming up a bit after mine and after listening to me ramble on about specs, apps, and how pretty the screen is, they decided, along with their mother, to get Incredibles as well. It all happened one night while I was over at their house playfully smack-talking their dad’s new iPhone.

After a personal testimonial and weigh off—yeah we actually got out a scale to compare the Droid and iPhone—I had them convinced the Droid and Verizon’s network were the way to go. Doing the math, including the upgrade to data plans, and the $500 on the Droid’s themselves, it came out to about $2500 over the course of the next 22 months all thanks to 25 minutes of me talking that Verizon didn’t even have to pay for.

They made me so happy with my purchase that I wanted to talk about it and it obviously paid them in the end. The impressive part is, I had high expectations coming in and they managed to meet and exceed them. I wrote a while back about being a little miffed with a customer service experience with Verizon, but since then, it has been Incredible.

No business can be perfect, but a lot can be forgiven when you can blow people away with your product or service on a consistent basis. When you engage with your customers, seek to amaze them. Give them something more than what they were expecting and they will talk about it. When they talk, you win.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxYjRIyUDwQ[/youtube]

“Stop playing with your phone, you’re such a nerd” (True story)